Video game are a popular entertainment activity that players can engage in through the use of a dedicated video game console or a personal computer. Game consoles and personal computers can be used to receive input from an attached game pad, keyboard, joystick or other game controller, process video game software, and display video game images on a connected television or monitor. Video game consoles and personal computers also can be used for multi-player games. Multi-player games typically require each player to use different game controllers attached to the same game console or computer. Multi-player game systems can also be implemented using game consoles or computers that send data to each other over a network or modem connection. In these multi-player systems, each of the multiple players are required to have compatible local video game consoles and/or home computer, and local copies of particular game software to play games with each other. Multi-player video games may, however, be more conveniently provided to players by a system in which the players do not require local game consoles, home computers, or other specialized devices.
In general, in one aspect, the invention features a multi-player video game server. The video game server includes a player interface, a video interface, and a game engine. The player interface couples the game server to a network and can receive game control data over the network from multiple players. Each player has a game control device used to input game control data. The video interface couples the game server to a video transmission network and transmits game display video over the video transmission network. The game engine is coupled to the player interface and the video interface and includes a processor and a memory. The memory stores multi-player video game instructions that configure the processor to process game control data and render the game display video that is then provided to the video interface for transmission over a video network.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a multi-player video gaming method. The method includes receiving a number of player input data connections at a game server. Each of the game control data stream includes player input data from a different player of a multi-player video game. An output display image is generated at the game server by executing video game instructions to process the player input data connections from the multiple players as inputs to the same multi-player game. The output display image is then transmitted over a channel of a video transmission network.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for providing a multi-player video game. The method includes receiving player input data at a game control device and transmitting the player input data over a network to a game server. The method also includes receiving a video game image at a video terminal that was generated at the game server in response to the player input data from the game control device and player input data from another game control device.
Implementations may include one or more of the following features. The output display image (i.e., the game display video image) may be divided into different subdivisions each of which is associated with a different one of the players. The player input data may be touch-tone (i.e., dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF)) data that is input by the players using telephone keypads. The transmitted output display image may be receivable by both players and an audience of non-players. The same output display image may be sent to all players of the multi-player game, or the game engine may generate different output display images for different players; the different output display images may be transmitted over different channels of the video transmission network. The game server may support more than one multi-player game (i.e., the game server may receive player input data connections from a second group of players and send output display images to that second group that are generated based on the game control data received from those players). The video game instructions for different multi-player games may be executing at different game engines. The game engines may include commercially available (mass-market) video game hardware such as Sony Playstation(copyright), Nintendo(copyright) or Sega(copyright) video game hardware. The game control streams may be received over a network that is different from the video transmission network. For example, the game control streams may be received over a point-to-point telephone network or a packet data network, while the video may received over a broadcast video network. The video transmission network may be a one-way video transmission network that can transmit video on multiple channels, and each channel may be receivable at multiple display terminals.
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.